∞ 02 21 ∞

[cruciblemods]

This is-----nder Orion. Ever--ne, can you h----me?

[it's garbled and half-obscured by static, but if passengers are awake and paying attention to their Spheres, they can indeed hear Commander Orion's voice coming over the network]

Sorry I haven't been able to rea---you sooner, but the captain's been scrambling-----unication. We're detecting massive tempo----and dimensional anomalies within the ship. I can't accurately project how much this has changed the layout, but it's------ikely that reaching the engine room is going to be that much harder.

It's a foregone conclu-----that the captain knows I've been contacting you, so secrecy is a moot point. Your best bet is t------and beat him to the engines. I know that sounds impossible, but with his mental stability in question, you just-----t be able to do it.

[a snow-ridden image flickers onto the network, showing a very distinctive red door]

Our instruments and the few ship's monit------systems we've been able to access indicate that the captain last went through an access door th----ooks like this. The anomalies around this area have stabilized i------distinctive pattern around and beyond this door.

In the original layout, ther----re only two more levels until you reached the engineering level, but these anomalies make it impossible to determine exactly where it is now. There's no telling if o-----n they'll change again, but there's a good chance the anomalies will follow the same kind of pattern t-------y've established so far. Passcodes may still be required, so keep them on hand.

We'll be continually standi------nd will commandeer the ship the i----nt the moment presents itself. Follow the captain. If I know him, he'll get careless eventually. That will be your chance.

Good lu--[and then he's gone]


Details

Well well well. Looks like events are moving forward once again! I'll get down to the nitty gritty right from the start. Bulleted for quick reference!

What has changed within the ship as of this announcement:

• The music permeating Level 24 and the ugly hallways has now ceased! So too has its effect on all passengers.

• The smudge on Level 23, however, remains in place and continues to have the same nightmare-inducing effects.

• The hallways are still there, but the red door that the commander showed over the network has appeared within them. It's only a couple turns in, so it's not that difficult to find!

But what is beyond that door?:

• Let's just say that the music was a little bit of foreshadowing. The door opens up to what looks, sounds, smells, feels, and even tastes like an amalgam of 1930s and early 1940s Chicago, with a bit of the 1920s slipping in there. Historical accuracy is not the best; elements from a fifteen to twenty year period are all hashed together in a rather hackneyed manner, so a quick read through Wikipedia and a few episodes of Star Trek can give you a pretty good idea of what's there. I've also collected a few things to give you some decent reference material to use. The door is tucked away in a back alley, well away from prying eyes, and will look the same both on the ship side and on the Chicago side. Characters may enter and leave Chicago whenever they please.

• Unlike all the simulations up to this point, this world is indistinguishable from reality. That means whatever characters say or do in this world has realistic repercussions. Robbery and destruction can get you shot, drinking will get you drunk, and those hookers? Can give you the clap. Really. A visit to the hospital level will probably be required in the event that this occurs. Characters that look or act odd will be treated like oddities and police can and will come after people who commit criminal acts.

• Characters that go through the door will find themselves abruptly attired in clothing appropriate for the era, but powers, abilities, and weapons will stay the same. Will a giant sword or a bow stand out? Yes. Yes, they will. Will casting magic stand out? Oh, certainly. Leaving Chicago will revert clothing back to normal, and returning will set that clothing, in the event that it was damaged, back to brand new. However, injuries received in Chicago are very real and will stay with a character even if they leave. Death can happen, in which event the usual game rules towards death will apply.

• In addition to clothing, characters will be treated like they always lived in this world. Much like the episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation linked above, characters entering may have random people treat them like friends, have apartments or homes in their name, receive angry calls from bosses, and so on!

• Aaaaaaaaaaand just to let you know, the Sphere network still operates as normal within Chicago. In fact, the Spheres are the only thing Chicago inhabitants won't notice! It remains invisible to them and visible only to passengers.

But Rem! That's too much information to consider! How will I know what's a crime/how people will react/what my character will look like/how well their powers work/where they live/etc.?

• Chicago and what happens there is, for the most part, decided by the player. We're all adults here, ladies and gentlemen. I don't have to tell you that having your character go crazy and take over City Hall is a no-no. Looking at our character list, there are only a couple characters that would honestly, ICly, go on random killing sprees. If you have a character who'd commit really heinous crimes (murder, setting fire to a building, going GTA in a Model T Ford, etc.), I ask that you please contact me and we'll work out what will happen when they do.

• As for everything else, a few general rules apply, most of important of which is this: characters caught in small crimes - petty thievery, brawling, resisting arrest, and so on - WILL go to jail, without trial. How do they get out? By their own skills, of course, or a friend busting them out, but from then on will be considered wanted criminals. Again, IF they are caught is at a player's discretion, as long as its understood that wherever they go, there is a chance that they will be treated as wanted men or women. The second most important is that damage that is player-caused will be gone by the next morning, game time. Break a window sometime tonight? Fix'd by tomorrow morning! This is so that we don't seriously impede Chicago's operation. And thirdly, no one can go beyond the limits of urban Chicago. The world simply ends at an infinite, black nothingness which characters can't enter; feels like an impenetrable wall, in fact.

• Keeping these rules and common sense in mind, players are allowed to go to town with Chicago and their character's place in it! :D For example, using Riku: when he enters, he's dressed like a modest white-collar employee. Decent wool suit, with a wallet in his pocket that contains a driver's license, a business card with his home address and the address of a small law firm, a few dollars, and a key to an apartment in one of the pockets. He can ignore all of that and wander around, getting weird looks because of his hair color, but otherwise normal enough not to cause too much of a stir. However, he runs afoul of a gang of ruffians, gets into something a fight, and doesn't run fast enough when the cops show up. This lands him in jail! But hey, he has a Keyblade. All he has to do is wait until a guard looks the other way and he's fine. Of course, he's then a wanted man and walking around is harder than it used to be.

• Does everyone's have to be like that? Does it have to be detailed? Does a character even have to enter Chicago at all? The resounding answer is no. Players may make this as complicated or simple as they like. Despite the blocks of text so far, this plot is not meant to force a lot of work on the players. I'm not going to come swooping down on you for not making it realistic or complex enough, I promise.

• HOWEVER, four characters will already be labeled as wanted. These four characters are Oliver Day [oliverplus], the Doctor [bit_impossible], Ishida Ryuuken [savetheliving], and Isshin Kurosaki [heresthebasics]. When/if they enter Chicago, they will mysteriously find themselves dressed as high-ranking gangsters, with thugs who call them boss, and police dogging their steps. Their players may play with this as they will, and if they have any questions, they may contact me at any time!

Alright, we've been reading all this tl;dr and still nothing about the event. What is it?

• Simple: find a second red door. Hidden somewhere in Chicago is another red door, which Captain Ganymede has presumably gone through to reach the deeper levels of the ship. But where is it? What clues do you have?

• The only clue you have is Captain Ganymede's behavior up to this point. Based on how he's acted, his personality, his reactions towards the passengers, his treatment of the passengers, and basically what kind of person he is, where do YOU (and your characters) think his psyche would form a door for him to access? After all, all the craziness up to this point has been more or less based on what he says/thinks/does. This is no different.

• The only additional stipulation is that the door would have been the door to something previous. The door to a bank, the door to a bathroom, the door to a meat locker, etc. So the solution will be found by puzzling out what Ganymede's personality will choose for his door.

• Characters CAN find a door by accident, so if you, the player, think it's a specific door but your character is unlikely to discover this - or even bother looking - you can choose to have them come across it by accident. Of course, they can also be looking for it intentionally. In either case, please label an entry and/or log with a guess with [Say Goodbye]. When a door that fits the bill is found, I will comment to that post with the mod journal to detail what happens and then make a post in the main community to inform the game at large.

• This event and plot will continue until someone finds the door; in the event that too much time is passing and no one has guessed correctly, I will have one of my characters find the door.

WHEW. If you have any questions about any of the (substantial) information above, please ask them here!